[enrique550]

On February 8th my vehicle had a lease inspection performed by AUTOVIN, BMW's 3rd party inspection service.

There were a couple of dents throughout and significant damage on both doors (suffered by the car while parked on two separate occasions and nothing the insurance would cover completely...but thats besides the point).

The inspector quoted a WHOOPING $2600 to repair it all. I knew my local repair shop would get the repair work done for much less and they did ($900) to be exact.

The day came to return the car to the dealer and I was in a rush so I told the lease person there to let me sign the odometer statement to I could head out and so we did. I gave her the keys and she said she'd call me if anything...

The next day she calls and tells me the pain job was NOT satisfactory and to send over the receipt from the repair shop. So I asked the shop to send her the receipt by fax. A week goes by and I log in to BMW Financial account only to see that I am being charged $2600 for repairs + mileage overage.

I then call the lease rep at the dealer and she tells me she never received the receipt from the shop and that the 4 day grace period for additional repairs on the vehicle was over and that they no longer had the car.

At no point did she tell me there was that 4 day time limit and even though I admit dropping the ball in following up with her getting the receipt, I personally give her the receipt the following day. Since my concern is that I don't think its fair to have to pay $2600 to redo the paint job when the shop really DID repair everything on that initial inspection report (isn't it peculiar that what BMW wants me to pay is EXACTLY what the initial inspection says?) what I'm really hearing is that BMW didnt really do an accurate assessment of what it would cost to fix the paint job on two doors and just defaulted to what was on the AUTOVIN inspection.

[Its important to note that the AUTOVIN inspector was very rude and not very professional in how he performed the service.]

Anyways, I call BMW Financial and tell them that its not fair that I have to pay that much because I wanted another inspection of the car since the dealer told me TO MY FACE that they dont do thorough inspection and they hadnt done so for years... just a quick exterior scan (hence the bad paint job comment). She told me TO MY FACE that they have too many lease returns and they dont have the time for a full inspection. If they DID, in my opinion, then they wouldve concurred that the cost to fix that paint job wouldve been substantially less. Even the shop I took it to it was just a matter of more polishing etc.. just hours of more work.

At this point, the dealer DOES NOT have the car so the state of the repair costs can no longer be accurately addressed and BMW FS insists that I still have to pay the $2600.

I'm at a lost now because I don't have AFTER pictures to show the shop did repair the damage (bad paint job aside) but this gives BMW no right to just come up with a number for me to pay without doing a real inspection and instead just leave the charges as the AUTOVIN inspection had reported.

I already paid almost a GRAND to the repair shop and now I have to pay $2600 to BMW?!!! I'm so disappointed and upset... I DONT have that kind of money!!!

True, I couldve been more diligent with the process but the BMW process was still very flawed in my opinion. I mean, really... you can return your car and then they can come up with HEY!! pay us $2600 to fix this even though you already fixed all the dents and collisions on the doors!! and not even give you a chance or proof that they did another thorough inspection.

Am I out of my mind here? Has anybody had this type of problem?

They've offered me a payment plan now that I spent the morning ranting to the BMW FS manager but sheeesh it will be like practically paying the lease for another car for a whole year...!

What I think BMW should have done was to be more transparent about the grace period to make repairs, less heartless and less uninterested while we talked about this (both at the dealer and BMW FS), and really give a more reasonable quote to repair a paint job.... NOT charge me what it costs to fix both dented doors again!

I paid that car on time every month and loved every minute driving it. After some bad luck with those dents and an upsetting lease return process, now the last thing I will ever drive again is a BMW. Not because I dont like the car, but because I was not heard out and believe I was treated unfairly over a repair receipt that was totally ignored and a lease end rep at the dealer that was overworked and too lazy to do an accurate estimate because they dont have the time and her vacation was coming up (true story).

I have no choice but to find the money to pay this now and I have learned my lesson... Never to lease a BMW again.

[enrique550]

one more thing. The BMW lease end rep said that she personally thought the AUTOVIN inspector quoted way too much for an inspection he did for her mothers car (not knowing she worked at BMW and had done thousands of lease returns before) and that they had had problems with that inspector in the past.

But enough whining and ranting. I have to get to work now to find the money and get this behind me

[UdubBadger]

call BMW and tell them you'll be taking someone to court over it to pay the charges (either BMW or Autovin), you have had several admissions of guilt here, plus unless they had given you in writing or verbally told you that you only had a 4 day grace period for repairs then obviously how would you know?

I'd do some more bitching if I were you, take it as high up as it can go. One person says there is nothing they can do for you at this point, take it up with their supervisor, and if they won't budge, talk to their supervisor... keep going up the ladder, cuz guys towards the top don't want to be bothered by this kind of petty stuff, they'd just rather credit your account and make their afternoon tee time at the country club ya know?

when in doubt, complain and if that doesn't work, you're not complaining enough.

[enrique550]

I've called to the dealer and BMW FS a total of 5 times already and just today when I asked to speak to someone else at BMW FS it was the manager, Michael, who I was talking to already and the best he could do was offer $500 off and 2 weeks to pay it (no payment plan on that). This amount pretty much just covers the over mileage and the disposition fee but I am most certain it only needs about $300 worth of paint buffing/polishing... not $2600 in damages. Most importantly, I offered to have my shop guys go to the dealership personally and take care of the car there but the car had already left.

I"m going to talk to my lawyer friends just to hear what they think... I obviously dont want to spent a bunch of cash in court fees either :S but you're right...maybe I shouldnt give up.

[rkick08]

Originally Posted by enrique550

I've called to the dealer and BMW FS a total of 5 times already and just today when I asked to speak to someone else at BMW FS it was the manager, Michael, who I was talking to already and the best he could do was offer $500 off and 2 weeks to pay it (no payment plan on that). This amount pretty much just covers the over mileage and the disposition fee but I am most certain it only needs about $300 worth of paint buffing/polishing... not $2600 in damages. Most importantly, I offered to have my shop guys go to the dealership personally and take care of the car there but the car had already left.

I"m going to talk to my lawyer friends just to hear what they think... I obviously dont want to spent a bunch of cash in court fees either :S but you're right...maybe I shouldnt give up.

talk to the general manager who runs the whole dealer, he can wave everything if he wants.

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by enrique550

I've called to the dealer and BMW FS a total of 5 times already and just today when I asked to speak to someone else at BMW FS it was the manager, Michael, who I was talking to already and the best he could do was offer $500 off and 2 weeks to pay it (no payment plan on that). This amount pretty much just covers the over mileage and the disposition fee but I am most certain it only needs about $300 worth of paint buffing/polishing... not $2600 in damages. Most importantly, I offered to have my shop guys go to the dealership personally and take care of the car there but the car had already left.

I"m going to talk to my lawyer friends just to hear what they think... I obviously dont want to spent a bunch of cash in court fees either :S but you're right...maybe I shouldnt give up.

Even though FS is handling it I would still let BMWNA know about it. I would say they might have a bit of pull in the matter. Also the "manager" Michael you spake to was most likely a low level supervisor for their call center. Give him a call back and ask who he reports to and their contact info. And like I said, if so and so above him can't do much, ask for his boss. Climb that ladder till you get what you want, which in this case is pretty reasonable and I think your lawyer friends would agree. Even if you don't want court costs, if it comes down to it, have one of them draft a letter for you and send it to a higher up at BMWNA and BMWFS to let them know you're not fuckin around. They don't want to pay a lawyer who probably costs $2600 a day to drag on in court for weeks if not months about a few thousand bucks that wasn't really even theirs to begin with.

Did you get another car already after turning in the lease? If you didn't it might be in your best interest to let them think they're losing a customer NOW, not like in 3 yrs down the road.

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by rkick08

talk to the general manager who runs the whole dealer, he can wave everything if he wants.

no it actually sounds like this has nothing to do with the actual dealership and more to do with BMW corporate (FS)

[enrique550]

right, this is all with BMW Financial and I will keep calling. I did not get another bimmer on lease end.

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by enrique550

right, this is all with BMW Financial and I will keep calling. I did not get another bimmer on lease end.

right so did you get ANYTHING else? If they don't know or you didn't get a BMW, for all they know you're still "looking" for another one. Use this to your advantage.

[I335]

Weird situation for sure...

Questions - why don't they have the car anymore? Where is the car? Did they sell it? If they already sold the car then what do they need the $2600 for? Did they already spend $2600 to repair it or did they sell it without repairing it? Lot's of gaps in this story...

[enrique550]

Good point I335, I will bring that up. The dealer told me the car was sold and I highly doubt they repaired it much less for that amount.

[enrique550]

UPDATE: I spoke to the manager's supervisor today at BMW FS. He was more helpful. Reduced the bill even more, though appreciated, that was not my goal since they are still charging for something that was fixed.

Anywho, he says the dealership should have account of the car before they sold it... ie. pictures and any repair costs necessary before selling. My next goal is to get this info from the dealership ASAP and if not, request PROOF of the condition I returned the car in because it CANNOT be an exact copy from the AUTOVIN inspection performed BEFORE I took the car to get fixed.

Will post again soon.

[UdubBadger]

good to hear you're at least making progress

[Tigerbait]

Sounds like there was some fine print that was not read. You have to cover your own ass in any type of contract. IMO you are more at fault for this than anyone else.

[RON1X]

^yeah you have to cover your ass in any contract, but most (actually all) of these contracts aren't drafted by the lessee. The terms are basically take it or leave it. True, most people don't read all of the print when signing, BUT the BMW rep could have given better information, which he subsequently relied on and ended up in this situation.

However, you are responsible for knowing everything when you sign on the line... not a good story to hear!

Hopefully they are helping out more with decreasing the bill

[enrique550]

So the dealership informed the car had been sold in auction and that since they don't do inspections they had no record of anything.

They referred me to AutoVin, the company that originally did the lease inspection because they supposedly were the ones that sent BMW a final post-lease return inspection report. Since BMWFS had told me they couldnt find that, nor the dealer, things just seemed too messy.

Well, looks like someone got fed up with all this back and forth and did something for me because today I logged in to my BMWFS account and saw that my amount owed was $0.

From $2800 to $0.

I am so relieved and happy how this turned out. It's been a month of back and forth. I was getting really upset and definitely didn't have that money.

Thanks BMW.

[marcel b]

Originally Posted by enrique550

So the dealership informed the car had been sold in auction and that since they don't do inspections they had no record of anything.

They referred me to AutoVin, the company that originally did the lease inspection because they supposedly were the ones that sent BMW a final post-lease return inspection report. Since BMWFS had told me they couldnt find that, nor the dealer, things just seemed too messy.

Well, looks like someone got fed up with all this back and forth and did something for me because today I logged in to my BMWFS account and saw that my amount owed was $0.

From $2800 to $0.

I am so relieved and happy how this turned out. It's been a month of back and forth. I was getting really upset and definitely didn't have that money.

Thanks BMW.

so.... a new BMW after all?
Happy it all worked out for you.

[enrique550]

So the dealership informed the car had been sold in auction and that since they don't do inspections they had no record of anything.

They referred me to AutoVin, the company that originally did the lease inspection because they supposedly were the ones that sent BMW a final post-lease return inspection report. Since BMWFS had told me they couldnt find that, nor the dealer, things just seemed too messy.

Well, looks like someone got fed up with all this back and forth and did something for me because today I logged in to my BMWFS account and saw that my amount owed was $0.

From $2800 to $0.

I am so relieved and happy how this turned out. It's been a month of back and forth. I was getting really upset and definitely didn't have that money.

Thanks BMW.

[UdubBadger]

Nice... told you to keep following up, good things happen.

glad you got it taken care of.

[Dre01SS]

Did they earn a client back now then? - Glad it all worked out!

[RON1X]

good to see a little pressure paid off! that was a lot of money at stake... what's your opinion on BMW now? Was it too much of a hassle to keep a customer? Just curious...

[RON1X]

good to see a little pressure paid off! that was a lot of money at stake... what's your opinion on BMW now? Was it too much of a hassle to keep a customer? Just curious...